All's Fair
All's Fair is a short story which first appeared in Wings magazine Vol. 1 No. 1 in 1934. It was later gathered and published, with other Johns short stories as part of The Raid in 1935. The story is considered one of Johns' adult series and does not feature any of his recurrent characters. Synopsis Captain Peter Logan, a flying instructor, takes on a aerial photo assignment for a newspaper but then discovers that one of his students, Sheila Sander, is determined to upstage him. The story is told over four chapters. Plot (may contain spoilers - click on expand to read) Captain Peter Logan, the chief flying instructor at South London Aero Club sees his student Sheila Sanderson execute a few dangerous flying stunts and reprimands her. She disagrees. Her plane is her own, and her life is her own. To her, Logan is just old and his "nerve is petering out". Logan on the other hand, counters that he had taken 16 years to learn what he needed to learn in flying. She lacked attention to detail, and still had a long way to go. The arrival of Logan's friend, Jimmy Larkin, provides him with some relief. Privately, Logan tells Larkin that Sheila is "a good kid", full of pluck and "looks you straight in the eye". But her father had committed her to Logan's special care and he was responsible for her safety. A good pilot, perhaps, but one who will try something once too often. Logan next tells Larkin that he has been given a special assignment by the Daily Pictorial newspaper to take photographs of French military operations against the Riff in Morocco but all that needs to be kept secret. With a start, Logan realises that Sheila has overheard them and he hopes she would not spill the beans. Logan arrives in Alicante on the way to Morocco when he sees a familiar Gipsy Moth coming in to land. It's Sheila! She tells him she has just been to Morocco to take pictures of the Riff for the Daily Searchlight. The newspaper had offered her a thousand pounds for them and her face on their front page. Now she is rushing back to London with her plates. But her aircraft is damaged. Logan urges her to wait and get proper repairs. He even gives his word not to leave for Morocco until she gives permission, and to help her with the repairs, but she ignores her advice. He asks why she is double-crossing him. "All's fair in love and business," she replies, quoting something he had once said to her. The next day, Logan crosses to Morocco and takes his photos and heads back via France. At a hotel at Lyons, he sees a copy of The Daily Searchlight. There is a picture of Sheila on the front page with a promise that her photos would be published the next day. Logan arrives in London and hands his plates to The Daily Pictorial. He expects a note from the newspaper to say that he had been "scooped" and the deal is off but there is no such note. He meets Sheila on the verandah at the clubhouse and asks her how her sortie had gone. "Why not look and see," she replies. Logan picks up The Daily Searchlight on the bench next to her and reads a published note apologising to readers that the promised exclusive pictures of the Riff would not be published after all. What had happened? Logan grabs Sheila and declares his love for her. She is surprised, but when she has made quite sure of this, she tells him she has a confession. She had wanted to take the photos for The Daily Searchlight knowing that this would upstage Logan. She wanted to do anything to take him down a peg. But somehow all her photos had a smudge across the middle. She thought she had taken care of everything but forgot to check the details: there had been oil smeared across her camera lens. Now Logan makes his confession. He had anticipated what she would do. At Le Bourget, he had learnt that Sheila was ahead of him and asked his friend Père Legendre at Alicante to put oil on her lens. All's fair in love and business. But, with her, he was not interested in business. Characters *Captain Peter Logan *Sheila Sanderson *Jimmy Larkin *Tommy Newbold *Browne *Père Legendre Aircraft *Logan's own aircraft type is not stated *de Havilland Gipsy Moth - G-AAAY *Breguet bomber Places Visited *South London Aero Club *Paris - Le Bourget *Lyons - Bron *Alicante *Oran Mentioned Research Notes *This possibly took place between 1930-1934. Logan is an R.F.C. veteran and says it has taken him 16 years to learn what he knew about about flying. But the Riff War ended in 1927 so this is somewhat anachronistic. References Category:Short stories Category:Other short stories Category:Adult short stories